In preparation for the planning submission we will be holding a drop in session for people to come and see the planning documents that will be submitted and talk to the team about any questions or comments they may have.

make:good will continue to hold their informal drop in sessions every Friday afternoon for residents.

Council Drop-In:

Residents can also come and speak to Dilan and the Lambeth team at the weekly council drop in sessions every Tuesday from 4-6pm.

Harvest Feast, 16th September 2017, 12 - 3pm

Some of you may have seen the food growing in the garden of No. 7 and we are intending to hold a harvest feast in September to taste our produce.

DESIGN UPDATE

Planting & Trees

An important aspect of the regeneration that we’ve been discussing with residents is around housing management and future maintenance costs/service charges. The team have been looking at the designs to ensure that the open spaces can be well maintained and service charges are kept to a minimum. This means that we have reduced the number of trees along the east west route and along Wandsworth Road. We have also removed the hedges from the front gardens which would prove to be maintenance heavy and become unsightly if not cut regularly, which would potentially lead to a high service charge for upkeep. Service charge is something that all residents pay either as part of their rent for tenants or as an additional charge for leaseholders.

Following feedback from residents at May’s exhibitions the length of the private gardens on the landscape drawings have increased from 2.5 - 3.0m to a consistent length of 4.0m for all ground floor properties, whilst balancing the amount of communal space required. It should also be noted that the new homes will be wider than the existing homes.

Parking

As we now have more detailed information on existing parking permits there is an intention that there will be provision for visitor parking and loading bays. Current figures show 78 spaces for permit holders, 17 accessible spaces, 5 visitors spaces, 3 spaces for deliveries and 1 car club space.

PHASE 1 UPDATE

Following last month’s update we have been making sure that our landscape proposals are the same as the overall masterplan and the whole estate will feel part of the same place.

The interior plans have been refined to make sure that we maximise storage as we know this is really important to residents.

There will be some refinements to the design and aesthetics of Phase 1 to take account of comments received from both the community and the Council.

DILAN'S UPDATE

In the coming months, we will be talking to you about a variety of important things which I wanted to remind you about:

Key Guarantees

– Every household should now have received a booklet with the Key Guarantees and these are also available on Lambeth’s estate regeneration website.

Tenancies and Leases – Following an independent review of the new tenancies and leases that Homes for Lambeth will be offering we are planning to consult with you on the these later this summer.

Housing Management – We want to talk to residents more about how Homes for Lambeth will approach housing management and we will be asking for your feedback.

Valuations - we are expecting updated indicative valuations to be made available in the next few weeks but you can see the values from recent buybacks online. Please note that you should consider these figures as an indication only of the value of your own property; the value of properties will depend on their characteristics e.g. size, location, condition and can change over time.

If you want to find out more about any of the above items and share your thoughts, please contact me by phone: 0207 926 9395 or email: westburyestate@lambeth.gov.uk or attend my weekly drop in every Tuesday 4-6pm in No.7

WHAT'S HAPPENING NOW

Lambeth are intending to submit the outline planning application to Lambeth Planning Department around the end of July 2017. We will write to all low rise residents letting them know that the application has been submitted. Tenants in the low rise blocks will get a letter, and leaseholders in the low rise all receive a ‘notice’ as well as a letter.

The outline planning application will set out the number of new homes, the height of the new buildings and their position in relation to the surrounding buildings. There will be further applications before we build anything called Reserved Matters applications. These are used to agree the material, flat plans, landscaping and parking etc.

Once the applications have been checked by the planning department residents and some neighbours will receive a notification letter from the Planning Department letting people know how to provide comments.

A copy of all the planning documents will be available in No. 7 Fovant Court as well as available to view online via Lambeth’s website www.estateregeneration.lambeth.gov.uk/westbury. We are holding a drop in session on the 19th July where you can see the work and talk to the team about the designs.

St James also expect to submit a full planning application for Phase 1 in early August.

FIRE SAFETY

All of our thoughts in the estate regeneration team are with those caught up in the tragic Grenfell Tower fire in Kensington. As more is known about the cause of the fire, lessons will be learnt. These lessons will be reviewed alongside Lambeth procedures and will be taken into account in the design and construction of your new homes and estate.

Lambeth have set up a dedicated team to review medium and high rise buildings owned by Lambeth Council, this would be all buildings 6 stories and over.

They have confirmed that there is no combustible cladding used on Amesbury and Durrington tower.All the fire risk assessments are up to date, the required actions resulting from these assessments are being completed and towers are being prioritised. FAQ’s can be accessed here.

We would also like to remind people to please help to keep you and your neighbours safe by:

Making sure you have a working smoke alarm in your home

Keeping balconies free from clutter

Not leaving rubbish or bikes in communal areas or obstructing escape routes

Making sure you know where your nearest fire exit is, and

If you are a smoker, please do not smoke in common areas of the block and always fully extinguish cigarettes smoked in your home and dispose of them carefully and safely.

If you have any question or concerns about your current homes’ fire safety, please do not hesitate to contact your local housing officer or the HM Fire Safety Department at Lambeth (hmfiresafety@lambeth.gov.uk).

You can also contact the London Fire Brigade on 0800 028 44 28 who can undertake Home Safety Visits.

The rebuilding programme is all about providing better homes for you and your neighbours and more homes to help tackle the housing crisis in the borough. These will be built to modern safety standards which incorporate all the up to date requirements to protect residents.

The safety of residents is the highest priority, and this will also be the case for Homes for Lambeth.

TIMETABLE

NEWMAN FRANCIS UPDATE

We are pleased to let residents know that we will continue offering support and advice to residents for the next few months. The proposals for the regeneration are moving along quickly. Much will be happening over the next few months. The Council will submit the planning application and there will be consultation around the new tenancies and leases as well as future housing management services. When we work with you we try and present a balanced view of the regeneration, both the challenges as well as the opportunities that the new homes will bring for many residents.

We are not just an information and advice service. We have helped residents influence the Key Guarantees and ensured that the Council has started to provide advice about living costs in the new homes. In our role, we try to make sure we can see the broader picture so we can provide residents with a genuinely independent service.

If change is properly managed by the Council and residents are involved in decisions then we believe the regeneration can be successful and give residents the homes they need at living costs they can afford to pay.